The Impact of Corporate Supplier Diversity Programs on Corporate Purchasers’ Intention to Purchase From Women-Owned Enterprises

Abstract

This doctoral thesis examines the impact of corporate supplier diversity programs on corporate purchasers’ intention to purchase from women-owned enterprises using Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior. Two hundred and seventy-two corporate purchasers across a diverse range of industries and geographical regions in the United States participated in a mail survey in which the participants responded to questions (capturing the constructs of the theory of planned behavior) related to a selected scenario. These scenarios (a 2 × 2 factorial design) manipulated two constructs: male/female of the small enterprise owner and corporate purchasers’ familiarity/unfamiliarity with the enterprise. The goal of the experimental manipulation was to ensure sufficient variance in the study constructs. The results provided general support for the theory of planned behavior in capturing how corporate purchasers make decisions. The findings of the study show that programs designed to promote women-owned enterprises may be effective in gaining acceptance from corporate purchasers. Thus, the dissertation makes a contribution to the corporate social responsibility literature as it reveals that it is possible for business to incorporate positive duty into its core economic activities without compromising its financial gains and that the economic-aligned and duty-aligned orientations can be integrated.